Which is the better Buy Router and lift or Shaper

[LtET9]

I Have been looking at the incra router lift and the Porter cable 7518 router the cost of these two items is near the price of a low end shaper what is the best buy .

[gabriel]

First of all, I don;t think Incra makes a lift, although you might be referring to one of the Woodpeckers (woodpeck.com) lift, they make the lifts gold, so they end up looking like other Incra stuff.

Anyway, you should find several shaper vs router-on-a-table discussions in the archives of this and other forums.

The last consensus I heard about the issue was this: A shaper is a rather advanced and dangerous machine, so in that sense it is better to start with a router. If you get a router + router table, you can take the router off and use it freehand, something you cannot do with a shaper. Also shaper blades are mroe expensive.

The note that stuck with me was that a shaper is more dangerous than a router (think of the big spinning blade), so I will not look into a shaper until I know I need it.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Depends on what you want to do. IMO, the router is a more versatile tool. Ed

[B a r r y B u r k e J r .]

My take:

Router / table - Cheaper bits, less power, slower work, less capacity (width wise) of profile, router can be used out of the table, no reversible.

Shaper - more power, cutter can be wider, most can take router bits, but without the RPMs of the router, not portable, faster for production work, reversible.

Bottom line? What do you want to do?

Make your own crown molding in large qtys, with custom profiles? Lots of raised panels? Get a shaper.

General edge shaping, access to a large number of reasonably priced stock bits, maybe take it to the work, rather than the work coming to the tool? Get a variable speed router.

If you don't have a router, and plan on doing general woodworking, by all means, get a router first. In fact, if you have to ask, you're probably better off with a router.

Barry

[SamTheCat]

I was looking at the same trade recently -- some of the lower end shapers also support router bits and so you can get a router / shaper that acts much like a router table

ok -- so whats the ringer ? -- well a shaper table seems to top out at

10000RPM, while routers operate at twice that speed.

My choice > the woodpecker lift and the 7518 router -- nice combo

[Subw00er]

After a month of research, I went with the woodpecker PRL, Makita R1101 and Rockler fence. Been very happy with everything.

[Gretch]

First questions: What do you want to rout or shape? Buy according to your needs.

[Rkola]

Take a look at the big Milwuakee router. Its about the same price as the PC

7518, and has above the table adjustment, which eliminates the need for a lift. One draw back is that it doesn't raise the bit high enough to remove while in the table, but I'm more that willing to lift the router and plate out to change bits in return for saving the price of a lift!.

[James D Kountz]

While thats a good choice I suppose a cheaper and proven method would be the Hitachi M12 $129-159 around the web, and a Router Raizer. If you havent looked into these things man take a look! Its about $89 and worth every penny. Fits a slew of plunge routers and their website is a wealth of information.

Take a look you'll be glad you did.

Jim